On 11th July 2013 we will picket Sotheby's Fine Jewels Auction in London, in protest of their partnership with the Steinmetz Diamond Group to form Sotheby's Diamonds. The Steinmetz company have adopted the Givati Brigade of the Israeli military which has been accused of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by the UN Human Rights Council. The Givati Brigade is responsible, in particular, for the massacre of the Samouni family of Gaza.

During Operation Cast Lead in January 2009, the Israeli army's Givati Brigade rounded up 100 members of the Samouni family, and ordered them into the house of Wa’el Samouni. The house was then bombed, and the ruined building cordoned off for four days during which time rescue services were prevented from approaching, with ambulances being shot at. When rescue workers were finally allowed into the ruins, they found 29 bodies, and traumatised children under the rubble with dead family members. They also found daubed on the walls racist graffiti in Hebrew which read "The only good Arab is a dead Arab".

The Steinmetz Company supports the Givati Brigade through charitable donations. Their foundation on its website* claims to "fosters a close relationship with the commanders and their soldiers" and "during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip the foundation helped the unit buy complementary equipment" and "visited and cared for the soldiers".

The surviving members of the Samouni family in a video appeal from Gaza have asked people in the UK to reject diamonds from the Steinmetz company.

Sotheby's through its partnership with Steinmetz is directly linked to Israeli war crimes in Gaza. We will be protesting outside Sotheby's to demand they immediately end their partnership with Steinmetz and and make reparations for it’s role in helping to fund Israeli war criminals.

Join us on Thursday 11th July 2013 outside Sotheby's in London, 34-35 New Bond Street W1A 2AA (closest tube station is Oxford Circus) at 1:30pm

*Once the information about their funding of Israeli soldiers during Operation Cast Lead came to public attention last year the company deleted all reference to it from their website in an attempt to conceal their complicity in war crimes - but not before screen shots of the original webpages were circulated on the internet.

During the holy month of Ramadan, as we move towards the Eid, I was going around Muslim shops in Tower Hamlets and elsewhere telling them that although they had collection boxes for the Mosque, although they had religious imagery in their shops, although they were selling dates to the faithful people to break their fast - the dates were made in Israel! They were stained with the blood of the Palestinian people! And Muslim shop keepers were selling them!